What are the common pitfalls when using PHP for form processing?

One common pitfall when using PHP for form processing is not properly sanitizing user input, which can leave your application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements when interacting with your database to ensure that user input is properly escaped.

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare a SQL statement with placeholders
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)');

// Bind parameters to the placeholders
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $_POST['email']);

// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();